Pages

Friday, December 6, 2013

It's that time of year again - the post-thanksgiving-pre-winter-break slump. It is the time of year when snow really should stop procrastinating its act, when CVS starts thinking it's okay to play only Christmas songs, when people start hoping for donuts at the sci li, and when most of our stomachs are still recovering from pounds of roast poultry, potatoes, pie, and more pie.

Fortunately, the Ratty has just the antidote. A hearty thanks to Ashley So for sharing her elegant pasta recipe - delicately balanced with the tartness of tomatoes and feta against savory morsels of hot dog a la refectorie de sharpe, and drizzled in heart healthy basil infused extra virgin olive oil, this dish is light, fresh, and sure to delight.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Friday lunch isn't Friday lunch if it's not at the V-dub. We're pretty sure by now that the location of the V-dub is no longer a secret and neither are its gorgeous deep fried strips of tender poultry goodness. What might not be so obvious, however, are the creative applications in which one can enjoy this beloved Friday lunchtime staple.

Voila, Paul's Buffalo Chicken Salad! Special thanks to Paul Martino for sharing his go-to recipe for jazzing up what might be Brown Dining's most heavily sought after menu item. It is an exquisite interplay of tangy/creamy crunchy/savory goodness, all on a top of a leafy bed of romaine and veggies for added vitamins; a meal that will surely satisfy your taste buds, your muscles, your brain, and your soul.

Paul's Buffalo Chicken Saladromaine lettuce3 chicken fingers (sliced, diced, or whole, I usually just chop them up as I eat the salad)shredded carrotschopped egg (from the salad bar)2 ladles of buffalo sauce2 tablespoons of bleu cheese cressingcucumber slicesPlace the chicken fingers, egg, and carrots over a bed of the romaine lettuce. Add the cucumber slices, pour on the dressing and drizzle with buffalo sauce. Try it, it's great!

Friday, September 6, 2013

Tostada means "toasted" in Spanish. Usually, the "toasted" is referring to the golden fried tortilla upon which toppings, usually of the savory variety, are piled. Owing to the delightful cornucopia of seasonal ingredients at the Ratty and the boundless creativity of Brown students, tostadas at the Ratty need not be restricted by their usual meat and salt-laden accompaniments.

Special thanks to Vishesh Jain for emailing us with this elegant recipe for berry tostadas! According to Vishesh, these crunchy chips can be topped with "all kinds of yogurts and berries" - truly a recipe that is only limited by one's imagination (and the whims of the Ratty).

Monday, May 6, 2013

To put it in the wise words of Wikipedia itself: "A Chicago-style hot dog, Chicago Dog, or Chicago Red Hot is an all-beef frankfurter on a poppy seed bun, originating from the city of Chicago, Illinois. The hot dog is topped with yellow mustard; chopped white onions; bright green sweet pickle relish; a dill pickle spear; tomato slices or wedges; pickled sport peppers; and a dash of celery salt. The complete assembly of a Chicago hot dog is said to be 'dragged through the garden' due to the many toppings."

Jonathan Sit emailed us with a fantastic recipe for a unique version of Chicago Dog "dragged through the Ratty Grill Line." Feel free to get creative with your toppings - but whatever you do, don't make the preposterous error of squirting ketchup on your Chicago Dog.

Hard boiled eggs. Boring, right? Wrong! As a matter of fact, the Ratty comes fully armed with an arsenal of ingredients to transform these humble protein morsels into decadent deviled eggs. We want to thank Jonathan Sit for his ingenious recipe and gorgeous photos. Enjoy!

Jonathan's Deviled Eggs

12 hard boiled eggs (served only at breakfast and lunch)

mayo

relish

yellow mustardbacon (for the adventurous)

Get a dozen hard boiled eggs. Peel and cut in half with a knife. They are easier to peel when warm so do it quickly! Put all the yolks in a cup. Now, using a soup spoon (the larger one not the dinky tea spoon), mix in 4 parts mayo, 1 part relish, and 1 part mustard. Mix! Season with a dash of salt and pepper. Carefully spoon back the mixture into the now empty egg-white halves. Now you can garnish it with more pepper or paprika (if they have it) or if you're feeling adventurous, bacon bits from the salad line! (I made this as a dish for a potluck so it makes a lot of servings!)

Friday, February 8, 2013

Mmmm the creamy goodness of Cajun Chicken Pasta. We love how the fusilli catches all the luscious spicy sauce in its gorgeous corkscrew curls. We thought, what else has little nooks and crannies for sopping up sauce? It's green and starts with a b and ends with a roccoli. To extend the sauce a little further, you can spice up your pasta with fresh chopped tomatoes from the salad bar and a dash of black pepper.

Cajun Chicken Broccoli Pasta

1 dish of Cajun Chicken Pasta

fresh chopped tomatoes

broccoli

basil infused olive oil

paprika

garlic powder

salt

pepper

Steam the broccoli by placing them in a single layer on a dish and drizzling on some basil infused olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, and a sprinkling of salt. Cover with an inverted plate and microwave 100-120 seconds, until broccoli is just cooked through. Top the pasta with tomatoes and microwave 30 seconds to warm everything through. Toss the broccoli over the pasta and sprinkle everything with salt and pepper to taste.

Spinach artichoke dip is delicious. It's probably not the spinach and artichoke's responsibility. That's right ooey gooey melty Cheese, we're looking at you. But we have to admit that Cheese's intrinsic deliciousness is buoyed by the humble presence of Spinach and Artichoke. Bet you didn't know that spinach artichoke grilled cheese could reveal such deep insights into life, did you?

Sandwich the artichoke hearts, baby spinach, and two cheeses between the bread. Spray the panini press with nonstick vegetable oil spray. Place the sandwich on the grill and grill for 2-5 minutes, until golden brown and crispy and the cheese is just melted.

Are crepes for breakfast or dessert? Why can't breakfast be dessert, you ask? Ah my friend, that's the spirit. Of course, if you load on the berries and some freshly sliced bananas, you can justify any dessert/breakfast. Get your calcium and protein fix from some vanilla soft serve (of course that's why we put it on everything...), and you'll be primed to seize the day.

Spread a different filling on each crepe. We used chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and cream cheese/jam. Fold each crepe in half twice and plate them slightly overlapping. Garnish the crepes with strawberry and pineapple compote, vanilla soft serve, and banana medallions. Savor with a cup of tea and the Sunday morning paper.

You can't get Thai iced tea from the soda dispenser at the Ratty. But you can come pretty close. This ingenious recipe, created by Michelle Zheng, is a refreshing stand in for a classic bubble tea shop staple!Michelle's (Sort of) Thai Iced Tea
Take a classic plastic Ratty cup, and fill it in this order with:
1/5 glass ice
3/5 unsweetened iced tea
1/5 raspberry iced tea
2 pumps vanilla coffee creamer

Monday, February 4, 2013

Mark your calendars for Wednesday 2/6, the yearly networking event for Rhode Island food producers, buyers, students, community members, and local food enthusiasts in between! More info about the event here.

In the spirit of this year's theme - Center of the Plate: What Makes Meat and Seafood Sustainable? - we would like to highlight some of the ongoing efforts in sustainability happening inside the Ratty.

Seafood - sourced from Clipper Seafood, a locally based company committed to sustainable fishing and conservation of local fish species

Chicken - supplied by Warwick Poultry, a local distributor in RI

The best part about cooking with fresh, local ingredients means you usually don't need to do a whole lot to make it taste good. Simply dress up a Rhode Island Chicken Salad with some fresh lettuce and tomato, or garnish a filet of local tilapia or sustainable salmon with seasonal veggies, and you'll have yourself a healthy, hearty, and delicious local meal in no time.

Subscribe via email

Email us if you have an idea for a recipe!

Hi there! We are Annie and Connie, twins at Brown University who love food. We were inspired by Brown students who created mouth-watering food concoctions in the Ratty from ordinary ingredients, so we started this blog to showcase recipes using ingredients that can be found in our college cafeteria.
College cafeteria eating doesn't have to be drab; with a dash of inspiration and pinch of creativity, you can dine like an Iron Chef judge at the Ratty.

Contributing Chefs

A hearty thanks to our contributing chefs!

Vishesh Jain

Vishesh is a student at Brown University who loves cooking as an expression of creativity and a way to make people happy. Inspired by culinary competitions and fellow students, he treats the Ratty as a combined grocery, kitchen, and dining room.

Love the Ratty? Love cooking/blogging/taking pictures of food? Apply to be a contributing chef!

Dietitian's Corner

What’s great about this salad is that it combines servings of both fruits and vegetables of varying pigments, is full of fiber, and balances flavor of both salty and sweet on the palate.

A plate full of color is one that is rich in various vitamins and minerals. The different pigments naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables provide good sources of Vitamin A, C and E and minerals like magnesium, potassium and folate. The pigments of fruits and vegetables function as phytochemicals and provide protective benefits to the heart, some are anti-carcinogenic, and help to prevent against other chronic diseases. Fruits and vegetables derive color from chlorophyll (green); carotene (yellow and orange); and anthocyanin (red, blue, purple).

The salad bars at both the Sharpe Refectory and Verney-Woolley are great opportunities to boost color in your diet. Choose from varying flavors, textures, cuts, and colors to compose your creation. Choose not only from fruits and veggies, but beans, cheeses, tofu, or tuna to add protein and nutrition. If making a salad your entrée, make half your plate from veggies, one quarter from fruits, and one quarter from protein.Go light on the creamy dressings and reach for extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress up your salad. Lastly, add crunch, texture and fiber by sprinkling on sunflower or pumpkin seeds and top off with some dried cranberries or raisins.